Koopa's Personal Journal

The Seven Billionth

I was about to log off the PC when I stumbled upon a very interesting post. Here is the link. The blog’s title is “Per Square Mile”. The author is Tim de Chant (more about him here).

I already heard this from the news but I was not able to follow up on my reading, until now. I tried Googling it and it turns out that one of the numerous “7 Billionth Baby” was born right here in my country, the Philippines.

With babies born almost every second, I would have thought that it would be impossible to determine whether a specific baby really is the 7 billionth (or any number for that matter).

I really don’t see anything special about being the 7 Billionth Baby. But the family, apparently, also received a scholarship grant for Danica May Galura, and a livelihood package to boot, so I guess this is a special thing, even if it was just symbolic (The UN assigned several countries to have a baby to highlight this milestone).

I also read the comments in the aforementioned blog post, and one of the comments really struck me. It is a comment from Margo Karolyi, of Canada (shown below):

It made me think a little. With my plans of getting married soon, and having a child or two, would we still have the same Earth that we have today? I mean, would Mother Earth still be able to support all of the needs of the entire population? What would happen then if the population continue to go up and resources go down? It is a scary thought, but it is a valid one. And is it just a coincidence that Asian countries have the most number of people? China, and India tops the list for population. I think being conscious with this fact may help a little, like having a limit of just 2 children perhaps (depending on capability of supporting them)?